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Elementary School
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Action ABC

Students learn alphabet letters while learning a distinguishable action alongside each letter.

 

Animal Coloring

Children color animals according to the ALT's instructions.

 

Animals Go Wacko

Students learn animal names, movements and sounds through this educationally fun tag game.

 

Animal Jeopardy

Students practice sayig various animals by choosing can't-be-seen cards from a Jeopardy-formatted chalkboard.

 

Bear's Clothes

Students listen to a story and must dress their bear in the appropriate clothing.

 

Bingo
A game in which students mark squares on a bingo card according to the target vocabulary spoken. 

 

Bluff

Students practice lying while saying the months of the year. (This game is linked to the JHS 1st year activity page).

 

Body Alphabet

Students form letters of the alphabet using their bodies.

 

Body Builder

Students learn how to recognize body parts by speaking and drawing the parts.

 

Body Coloring

Students color body parts of the giant and robot handouts according to the ALT's directions.

 

Big/Small Concentration

Students take turns trying to find matching alphabet letters.

 

Boom Boom! Game

Students raise/lower their hands based upon what you say versus your actions. 

 

Calendar Slam

Students form sentences about the weather while racing through a monthly calendar board game.

 

Candy Betting

Students learn early in their lives to be gamblers with this Janken-playing candy-card betting game. 

 

Charades

Gesture game relating to sports vocabulary.

 

Christmas Card Creating
This activity teaches students how to make English Christmas cards.

Circle Race
Students verbally race in a circle to complete rounds by saying different things they like.

Clap the Halls with Katakana
Students clap through various Christmas words in katakana-English versus real English to show help show the differences in pronunciation.

Clothes Race
Students race to put on clothing according to the ALT's directions. This game is very physical and is perhaps best for more active classes.

 

Coin Toss

Students throw a coin onto an alphabet card then say the letter.

 

Color the Animals
This is a listening activity for the students to color pictures according to the ALT’s directions. 

 

Crazy Faces

Students ask their friends, "How are you," and draw that particular expressive face on their face worksheet. 

 

Criss Cross

Students race to answer questions in hopes of sitting down before their friends.

 

Dance the Intro Away

When the music stops, students stop dancing and greet each other using self-introduction phrases.

 

Daruma Mr. Wolf

While practicing various 'how are you' responses, students travel from one side of the room to the other, without being eaten by the wolf.

 

Directed Animal

Students help their ‘blind’ partner draw various animals. 

 

Doctor Dodgeball

Students play Japanese dodgeball in a civil manner by destroying each other with kind words.

 

Do Freeze

Students walk around and suddenly 'freeze' when the music stops.

 

Draw the Object

Students practice drawing pictures based upon the preposition given them.

 

The object of Steal the Bacon is take the "bacon" back to your own side without being caught. This version is also used to practice health.

 

Dr. Doctor!

Students play a doctor/patient game, naming the body part where they are hurt, and bandaging it with toilet paper. Works well with teaching about body parts and feelings.

 

England Time

To find out what time it is in the nine countries listed. (This game is linked to the JHS 1st year activity page).

 

Eto

Eto means umm. When Japanese think outloud, they say this phrase a lot. Students race to recall alphabet letters randomly written on the chalkboard.

 

Family Shapes

Students draw and cutout shapes according to the ALT’s directions to make family dolls. 

 

Farm

Students walk around playing Janken and asking for target vocabulary cards.

 

Fast Touch!

Students race to be the fastest to touch the body part explained by the ALT.

 

Finding Nemo

Students ask a series of, "Do you like ~ ?" questions in hopes to discover their partner’s character card. 

 

Five-by-Five
Teams receive points based upon their ability to answer questions on a 5-by-5 grid.

Flashcard Police
An engaging strategy for practicing tedious memorization. An alternative to the “read-and-repeat”, it works best with younger students but can be altered for older students.

 

Food Wheel

Students make a food wheel to help them become familiar with the word shape for foods.

 

Four Corners

Inside various squares around the classroom are the 'target vocabulary' words.  Students choose a square to stand in and listen to see if it's the English word the teacher calls out.

 

Freeze Tag

Students play a variation of tag where a freeze option is used to practice polite language. 

 

Gestures
Students practice listening and speaking ‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night,’ through the use of repetition and charades.

 

Go Fish!

Students walk around playing Janken and asking for target vocabulary cards.

 

Grabbing Guess

Students guess how many objects you have in your hand or a box.

 

Homemade Telephone
Students learn how to make telephones and practice greetings.


Honeycomb Bees
Students compete against each other to name the flashcards and try to link their bees together.

Hot Potato
Students pass an object around while listening to music. When the music stops, the student holding the object says a target vocabulary.

 

Hot Seat

Students learn to familiarise themselves with numbers running to sit in the correct chair!

Hide Billy

Sending a student into the hall, students are quizzed on various articles of clothing. 

 

Hot & Cold

Students guide their team members around the classroom in order to have them touch a previously chosen object.

 

Huggies

Students form numbered groups based upon the number they are given. 

 

International Weather

Students search out various countries posted throughout the classroom and say its weather.

 

Janken
Janken is your standard Paper, Rock, Scissor game, also known as Roshambo.

Job Fair Janken

No matter how old or cool they get, students love to play Janken! They carry around cards with various jobs on them and try to create a full set using Janken and, of course, English.

 

J-Style Fast Food

Students practice eating at a Japanese-style fast food restaurant.

 

Juicy Sabotage

Get the kids to create their own juice combinations, in a race to serve it first.


Jump!

The ALT says a number and the students must jump that many times.

Karuta

A game in which the teacher says a word or phrase and students race to slap the correct card.

 

King Kong Karuta

In this chaotic but riveting game involving simultaneous tables of Karuta, students have the chance to become King-Kong and accrue a ton of points for their team.

Leg Race

This is a listening game where students race through a barrage of legs based upon the number called.

 

Like Interviews

Students wander around the classroom asking each other "Do you like ~ " questions, while filling out a worksheet. 

 

Lucky

Students stand on 'lucky' vocab spots and hope their spot isn't called out.

 

Magnetic Parts

Students practice listening to various body parts by correctly forming the correct combination.

 

Make-Believe Doll Chain
Students draw and cutout shapes according to the ALT’s directions to make family dolls. 

 

Mario & Luigi

This easily adaptable game turns your usual boring classroom into one giant Super Mario video game while having the class work together to clear levels.

 

Mask Creating

Students make Halloween masks while learning face parts and Halloween phrases.

 

Monster Drawing

Students use their knowledge of English colors, numbers, body parts, and shapes (optional) to draw a monster based upon the ALT's description.

 

Mr. Bump

Blindfolded students being guided through an obstacle course listen to their partner's directions to avoid dangerous desks.

 

Musical Meishi
Meishi means business card. Students use a business card to introduce themselves to each other.

Mysterious Animals
Students walk around with an unknown animal card on their back. Their friends help unravel the mystery through the use of animal sounds.

 

Next Number?
After saying their own number, students decide and call out the next number.

Not 21!
Students practice saying numbers 1-21 in this nail-biting counting game.

Number Olympics
This is a set of four games being played at the same time and with all students participating at the same time while practicing the four parts of learning.

 

Oh My King

Students study action verbs and practice numbers 11-19 (or whichever numbers they have troubles with). Students become "the king" or "the slave" and either say the action verbs or do the actions. 

 

Othello

This is a grid-game based on Othello which introduces or reviews pronouns and possessives.

 

Original Curry

Students play Janken to find ingredients for their homemade curry recipe. 

 

Original Juice

Students decide on a recipe then go shopping for ingredients to make their very own 'original juice.' 

 

PacMania
While trying to avoid the evil teacher PacMan, this multi-topic adaptable game consists of students maneuvering PacMen around a chalkboard size PacMan game board trying to touch power pellets to collect points.

 

Pair Race

Students race with the person beside them to say English words.


Paper-Turkey Making
Students learn how to make a turkey with construction papers while they learn or review shapes and/or body parts.

 

Pico Number Relay

Students compete against each other on a relay race while saying the numbers in order and hitting the numbers with a pico hammer.

 

Pilot
Students make paper airplanes and practice hitting targets based upon the target vocabulary.

Pin the Shippo
Shippo means tail. Students pin the tail on the donkey using directions.

Pizza Please!
Students take turns working and ordering a pizza from Pizza Hut. In addition to choosing their favorite toppings for their pizza, they also learn how to use the word 'and'.

Playing Your Cards Right
Students practice saying numbers based upon flipping an unknown card.

Price Is Right, The
Like the American TV game show, students guess the prices of toys from the ALT's country. 

 

Ready for Speech

Make public speaking and introductions fun.

 

Red Shingo, Green Shingo

Shingo means stoplight.  Trying for the ultimate goal of touching the oni (the person that's "it"), students race across the classroom listening to various instructions shouted out by the ALT.

 

Robot, The

The students give a robot commands and you (the robot) act them out. A lot of fun!

 

Safe Zone

This is a kind of tag where players try to escape to the safe areas before they are tagged.

 

Starting Destination

Practice names of different countries and the target grammar. "Where are you from?" "I`m from _________."

 

Twister

Students try to twist their bodies/limbs into various pretzel shapes to correspond to the ALTs instructions. 

 

Sazae's Family

Students race to choose the correct family member based upon questions asked by the ALT.

 

School Layout

Students aim to place all the objects in the correct rooms in the ‘school’.

 

Senaka Me!

Senaka is Japanese for the center portion of a person's back. Students try to guess various letter written on their back by their teammates'.

 

Shapely Animals

Students draw animals using the shapes they are taught. This is a very easy and basic activity, which teaches kids to recognize shapes in animals.

 

Shingo or Jail

Students become cars and drive around a designated track following traffic directions. 

 

Shinka

Shinka means evolution.  Students meet, greet and play Janken while moving up an evolutionary ladder practicing any target vocabulary.

 

Shopping Spree

Students practice buying items in a store while practicing store purchasing vocabulary.

 

Simon Says
A game in which students perform actions according to the teacher's commands, but only if the command is followed by the phrase, "Simon says." 

 

Slash

Students cross off letters on their alphabet worksheet based upon the roll of the dice.

 

Snakes & Ladders

Students play the snakes and ladders game, aiming to be the first to finish in their group. 

 

Snowflake Making

This activity teaches students how to make paper snowflakes.

 

Spin the Bottle

Students spin a bottle to review words or grammar.

 

Star Wars Jedi Duel
Adorned with Star Wars character masks, students are guided around the classroom trying to extirpate other teams' saber-wielding opponents by listening to their teammate's directions.

 

Takara-mono

Takara-mono means prized possession or treasure. Students search for their own takara-mono by greeting other students and asking, "Do you have ~ ?"

 

Take-away Concentration

While the students aren't looking, remove various objects and have the students guess the removed item.

 

Tanbo

Tanbo means rice field, not to be confused with Tonbo, which means dragonfly.  Students move through different sections of the tanbo saying different things they like.

 

TPR True/False

Students run to true/false sections of the room based upon whether they believe the ALT's statements.

 

Time Trials

Students practice alphabetizing the alphabet.

 

Toss!

Students race to catch a ball based upon a color given.

 

Touch Me If You Can!

Students touch objects in the classroom based upon what color is called out. This is a good warm-up activity. 

 

Uno Scramble

Students win points for their team or themselves by collecting various numbered cards (1-10) called by the ALT.

 

Uno Time

Students enjoy playing Uno with a set of time cards.

 

Uso!
Uso means lie. Students choose objects they don't like and try to make their partner believe they do like it.

 

Volleyball

Review words while playing volleyball.


Weather Forecast
Children predict next week's weather by completing a weather forecast worksheet.

Weather with Calvin
Students ask one another, "How's the weather," and then draw the weather accordingly into the squares of their worksheet.

What's In My Pockets?
Students try to guess the objects in your pockets.

 

What's in the Box?

Students work in teams to guess a variety of objects or flashcards in a hidden box.

 

What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?

This game is exactly like the "Red Light, Green Light' game.  Students practice asking the time and listening to the ALT count while trying to cross the room.

 

What & Where?

This game is similar to Go Fish!, except a little more advanced. Students learn how to ask what and where questions while practicing animal and country names.

 

Where is it?

Students try to guess the location of an object.